Thursday, February 24, 2011

Earth's Flora: Existing Solely For Corp/Gov To Make Money

"A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) proposal to reclassify the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana as a Schedule III substance would allow pharmaceutical companies to market the drug while still penalizing common recreational use, according to marijuana law reform advocates.

The main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is currently a Schedule I substance within the US Controlled Substances Act, the most restrictive schedule with the greatest criminal penalties.

In November 2010, the DEA proposed reclassifying dronabinol, a synthetic THC, as a Schedule III substance, which would place it among substances such as hydrocodone and allow it to be dispensed with a written or oral prescription.

"The DEA's intent is to expand the federal government's schedule III listing to include pharmaceutical products containing naturally derived formations of THC while simultaneously maintain existing criminal prohibitions on the plant itself," Paul Armentano, the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), wrote at AlterNet.

With its proposal, the DEA is responding to the demands of large pharmaceutical companies, he claimed.

Marijuana plants and THC extracts would remain illegal under the proposal, but companies would be able to purchase THC from a government-licensed provider to develop pharmaceutical products."

2 Comments:

Yet they would still maintain, as they so often do with their propaganda, that it (cannabis) has no medicinal value?

This is no doubt a big decision for them because it will make them look like the major hypocrites they are to the majority of the people.

If they do this it might eventually lead to unavoidable reforms. Cannabis should be reclassified to schedule 3. But it'll be much harder for them to justify their fascist treatment of cannabis users if they do so.

Could be they are seeking to replace their profits with a semi-legal market.

I don't think they care much one way or the other how they look, they've been flaming hypocrites for decades. It's probably going to wind up that they're going for the best of both worlds - grabbing a monopoly on lab health benefits while still filling prisons.